An Interview With The Members Of Dillinger Escape Plan

One of the best experiences of any metalhead's life is being able to meet his or her favorite band in person. It's one of those moments that simply can't be replicated and is nearly impossible to describe to people outside of the scene. Metal Underground recently got the chance to talk to The Dillinger Escape Plan about the band's newest album, guitar influences, opinions on Nickleback, and an upcoming side project.

Matt Dasher: As the sole remaining founding member, do you feel like you are the Dillinger Escape Plan?

Ben Weinman: I don't think that I am The Dillinger Escape Plan. Still, It is weird having every single person I know in my life have something to do with Dillinger. Most people only know me for Dillinger.

Matt: How do you manage to innovate despite making music for over a decade?

Ben: The main thing we try to do is not try to think about what people want to hear, just go back to when we first started and didn't have fans and we didn't have any expectations of what Dillinger should sound like. When we make a record, we make a record that we'll enjoy and we want to hear. That's the main thing for us. The hard thing is to incorporate new things into our sound without abandoning everything that we've been known for in the past as well.

Matt: Have you ever been considered for the G3 tour?

Ben: No, I haven't talked to anyone about that.

Matt: Why was Season of Mist chosen as your new label?

Ben: Season of Mist let us have control over everything as much as possible from day one. We have the ability to release our music and put it out with a little more control. We found a label that would allow us to do just that, try new things and have more control over things like the packaging. They also would not tie us down into any long contractual obligations. The fact that Season of Mist has been putting out extreme music for so long and is so open and cool with artistic expression allowed us to try things the way we wanted to do them. The deal just made sense.

Matt: Will we ever see the debut of your side project Shit Yeah?

Ben: there's a couple of songs floating around they're really rock and roll pleasers. MILFS love em. 80s rock moms are gonna dig it. You've gotta get one for them too. Shit Yeah has become like a mythical entity that exists more in theory than as an actual band but if we had a day when we could get set up in a studio we could crank out the Shit Yeah record.

Matt: Does the special edition of Option Paralysis have the Japanese bonus track on there?

Greg Puciato: It doesn't. It's a cool song, I'm sure you'll find it on the internet.

Matt: Our you surprised at the overall positive reception that Option Paralysis has gotten so far?

Greg: Yeah, it's crazy because we're at the point in our careers where we've been doing it so long where we don't expect anything from anyone.

Matt: Still, it feels like Option Paralysis is a bit more developed than Ire Works.

Ben: I really like Ire Works but we were more stable as a band when we recorded Option paralysis than we were when we made Ire Works. We had a full lineup and we wrote it all at one time. Our drummer and I lived together during the writing process. We just got together and jammed. With Ire Works we had band members changing and we had injuries going on. So I was writing music on computers and pianos and in all sorts of formats.

Matt: I actually saw your Facebook page pop up on the, "Can this Pickle Get More Fans Than Nickleback" group. What do you think explains the popularity of such drivel?

Ben: Nickleback is the rock equivalent of country music, just with a hard rock costume on. It's butt rock. It's got a country appeal. A dude on a tractor truck can just ride, listen to Nickelback and drink a beer. Most people like that don't want to think so Nicleback is probably the perfect band for them. Like Shit Yeah which is going to sound as much like Nickleback as possible.

Matt: What's your favorite continent to tour?

Ben: We enjoy playing in Australia, to be honest with you. It's very much a really great place.

Matt: Did you ever expect a band as brutal as The Dillinger Escape Plan to become the underground sensation that you are to the point where you get props from members of Metallica and Dream Theater and open for At the Gates in Japan?

Ben: No, we never thought that would happen. It's very surprising to be honest with you. It's an honor for people who have achieved so much and heard so much music over the years to think that we're doing something special. That's really cool.

Matt: Your shows have a reputation for being very spontaneous and violent. Do you see yourselves as successors to GG Allin at all in the sense that you bring danger back to rock and roll?

Ben: We are big fans of GG Allin. He was an important part of musical history and I think that there needs to be a little more GG in music. Maybe not necessarily the female fan beating or shit flinging.

Matt: Or dog raping.

Ben: That too. But there needs to be a tad more of GG back in music. I'm pretty sick of the predictability of the music industry right now.

Matt: Are there any bands that you'd really love to tour with, regardless of genre?

Ben: Over the years there's been a lot of bands we've loved touring with. We'd love to tour with more bands like Botch. They were always fun to play with. Darkest Hour, our friends who we were on tour with are also really great.

Matt: Is there any rivalry with bands that you have a lot in common with in terms of sound like Origin?

Ben: We don't know those guys so I don't know enough about those guys as people to make any judgments.

Matt: Thank you. This was the best interview I've ever done for this site.

Matt is a freelance writer living in Chicago, Illinois and a metalhead since 1999.

Whoa, this was a very interesting interview... G3? REALLY?!?!?! i can't see that happening, but the whole "It's butt rock. It's got a country appeal. A dude on a tractor truck can just ride, listen to Nickelback and drink a beer." is pretty smackon right hahaha. TDEP are f***ing great though, im glad they're getting the recognition they deserve "It's an honor for people who have achieved so much and heard so much music over the years to think that we're doing something special. That's really cool."This is because of Mike Patton.. he changed their sound in their EP Irony Is A Dead Scene, from random sounds basically in the selftitled LP, to afterwards with Miss Machine.